Today's News

Galax ranks fifth-highest in Virginia for those taking their own lives. Experts blame the area’s high numbers on a poor economy, lack of acceptance for some social groups and limited mental health services.

HILLSVILLE — Parkdale Mills officials worry that a treaty negotiating fewer barriers to international trade could further diminish the already challenged domestic textile industry.
Steve Mauck, a plant manager at Magnolia in Hillsville, expressed his concerns to the town council members at their June 10 meeting, hoping to get more signatures and support for the petition that company officials are circulating.

HILLSVILLE — Members of the Grover King VFW Post 1115 and Ladies Auxiliary held a special ceremony on Flag Day to honor a beautiful symbol of the United States’ national pride, according to organizer Don Dobbins.
The Stars and Stripes is the fourth-oldest banner in the world, older than even the flags of Great Britain and France.
“Their countries might be older than ours, but our flag is older than theirs,” he said.

Several activities and sights in Galax have won awards in Blue Ridge Country’s 2013 regional “Best of the Mountains” poll.
Readers chose the Blue Ridge Music Center as a gold winner for the best place to hear mountain music, the Galax Old Fiddlers’ Convention for silver for best music festival, and New River Trail Cabins for gold for best cabin rentals.
Galax’s historic downtown Rex Theatre won silver for best restored theater.

If a lazy day atop one of Virginia’s highest mountains listening to the region’s best music sounds appealing, then the Wayne C. Henderson Music Festival and Guitar Competition is the place for you.
It’s always on the third Saturday in June.
The festival at Grayson Highlands State Park is an annual fundraiser for youth music scholarships. More than $47,000 has been awarded to aid young, local, traditional musicians in continuing their music education.

MOUNT ROGERS — A search party assembled at Grayson Highlands State Park on Friday morning following the disappearance of two unidentified hikers, according to a spokesperson from the Grayson County Sheriff's Department.

The hikers were said to have been missing since Thursday.

Rugby Fire and Rescue was dispatched to assist at the scene that morning

HILLSVILLE — If Carroll County needs a loose livestock ordinance, a citizen asked that it only target “habitual offenders.”
Myra Leonard was one of six speakers who shared their reactions to Carroll County’s loose livestock proposal as written by County Attorney Jim Cornwell.
The proposal would make it a misdemeanor for a person’s livestock or fowl — not companion animals — to leave their owner’s land and get onto someone else’s property or onto the roads.

HILLSVILLE — The first Carroll County election to be held after staggered terms go into effect will feature a race for the Fancy Gap school board seat and a contest for Pipers Gap supervisor.
Two candidates with experience on the Carroll School Board will compete to represent the Fancy Gap District, according to information from the voter registrar’s office. Incumbent Joey Haynes will face former school board member Phillip Berrier in the fall election.
School board races are non-partisan.

HILLSVILLE — County officials at their Monday meeting put the final nail in the coffin of a proposal that one Carroll supervisor called “a Trojan horse” intended to keep electricity-generating wind mills out of the locality.
Not long after a company named EDP Renewables began researching Stoots Mountain for a wind farm, the supervisors directed the county attorney to come up with an ordinance controlling placement of tall structures on ridge tops.